By Austin Ogwuda
Pressure has continued to mount in Delta State regarding how the humongous amount of N1.7 trillion which accrued from 13 percent Derivation Fund was utilized by the immediate past Governor Ifeanyi Okowa during his tenure.
Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Chief Edwin Clark fired the first salvo petitioning the anti graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC to arrest the immediate past Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa in connection with the issue.
Despite the fact that former Governor Okowa had been labouring to clear the air through his immediate Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, other stakeholders have backed Clark’s call for the probe.
The latest came from a group known as The Movement For the Survival of Niger Delta People.
Publicity Secretary of the group, Dr. Sebastine Agbefe in a statement made a available to The Town Hall stated that “it is sad to note that Delta State is unarguably the most under developed State in the Niger Delta region despite the huge allocation received from the Federation Account monthly”.
The group added it is in full support “of the call by Pa E. Clark and every other Deltan calling for the probe of governor Okowa over alleged misappropriation of funds accrued to the State under him as governor”.
PANDEF leader, Chief E.K. Clark had earlier told newsmen that he raised alarm before now but “he (Okowa) said he had been spending the money.
“The answer they gave me was that they spent N5 billion on payment of pensioners.
How does that come under 13 percent?
“From a certified copy obtained from the Accountant General’s office showed that Derivation Fund paid to Delta State from 2007 to December 2022 was N1.7 trillion”, Clark added.
“13 percent Derivation Fund is rubbished – Imegwue”
On his part, former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly during the Fourth Assembly who presided over the House between June 2007 and May 2008, Dr. Olisa Imegwu said the purpose of establishing the Delta Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) has been defeated.
He said that the legislation setting up the Commission was conceived and passed during his tenure as the Speaker, primarily, targeted to bring development to suffering masses in the oil producing areas of the State but expressed regret that that purpose has been killed.
He spoke in an exclusive interview with The Town Hall in Asaba.
Said he, “there is nothing like DESOPADEC anymore.
It has become a political football. I was one of the lawmakers who moved the motion in the House, Hon Misan Ukubeyinje joined me to move the motion to increase it from 25 percent.
“What Governor Ibori brought as proposal to the House of Assembly that time was 25 percent but we increased it to 50 percent of 13 percent derivation to the State and it is, to primarily, deal with the problems of underdevelopment, neglect, marginalisation of people in oil producing areas particularly in the riverine.
“In 2015 when Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan came into power they amended that law three times and removed everything that was there that was supposed to benefit the targeted populace.
“As the law is today”, he went on, “anywhere now in Delta State can be become oil producing once you are five kilometers close to the facility maybe pipeline or something near oil producing. It is no longer what the original law which stated – 30 kilometers radius.
“It is like a political football, meaningless. The purpose of 13 percent is to address the immediate needs peculiar to the areas the oil comes from because of the nature of the terrain.
“That is completely gone. That was why Governor Okowa could not give us the Aboh Polytechnic which Governor Uduaghan approved for us. He (Okowa) said there was no no money.
“So DESOPADEC is dead. It is politics that took away all the checks that would make it focus on the targeted areas for development”, he further added.